A review of depression research

May 1, 2019 / BIOON / - depression has a serious impact on the physical and mental health of patients and has a disastrous impact on their families For this reason, this article summarizes the latest research progress of depression for you to learn together 【1】 AJP: multiple genes are related to the occurrence of depression doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.18091014 -- according to the report of the World Health Organization, depression is now the main cause of disability, with a global impact of more than 300 million people Depression is the result of the interaction of physiological, psychological and social factors Although depression can manifest at any age, it tends to first appear in adolescence Therefore, it is very important to determine the risk factors of depression before clinical confusion In a recent study, the authors used a relatively new method to calculate the genetic risk of depression Traditional genetic studies focus on one genetic difference at a time and determine its statistical association with disease risk In this study, information from many genetic variants associated with depression (found in more than 460000 adults) was used to create scores that reflect the genetic risk of depression clustering, also known as polygenic risk scores Individually, these variants have little impact on risk, but when combined, they can reveal hidden disease risks, providing a clearer picture This method has been successfully used to quantify the genetic risk of many common diseases, such as heart disease or diabetes The study was published in the American Journal of psychology Thorhildur halldorsdottir, the first author of the study, explained how it was carried out in more detail: "the score was first calculated from genetic data obtained from a large number of adults with depression The parameter was then evaluated in a smaller group of children and adolescents Determine if it predicts depression and depressive symptoms in this age group "We also looked at how childhood abuse history affects risk We found that polygenic risk scores and exposure to childhood help identify young people at risk for depression " Effective psychological and pharmacological interventions for depression are well known A combination of these interventions has been found to be the most effective Unfortunately, the application of these measures in the field of public health is not feasible, in part because of a lack of resources "By applying research findings like this, it is possible that these effective interventions will in the future target young people at the highest risk of depression, that is, those with a high polygenic risk score and / or a history of childhood abuse." 【2】 HIV Med: HIV infection increases the risk of death and depression doi: 10.1111/hiv.12726 - in a new study investigating the relationship between symptoms of depression, HIV infection and mortality, researchers report that symptoms of depression in veterans are moderately related to HIV death Researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) used data from participants in the Veterans Aging Cohort to compare the risk of death among veterans and depressed patients in the United States Then, they compared the relationship between depression and death between HIV-infected and non HIV infected people, and measured depression in two ways by clinical diagnostic code and depression symptom questionnaire Source: www.pixabay.com in people with HIV, they found a 23% increase in the risk of death associated with an increase in depressive symptoms identified in the questionnaire, but when the code identified depression, there was no significant increase in the risk of death For people without HIV, the risk of depression related death measured by coding increased by 6%, but there was no significant increase in the risk of death assessed by the questionnaire According to the researchers, it is important to screen and treat depression, especially people with HIV, because life-saving antiretroviral treatment can significantly increase life expectancy "Our results highlight the need to assess and treat depression and major depression in patients with and without HIV infection in order to potentially reduce the risk of death," explained Dr Kaku so armah, associate professor of medicine at BUSM, the corresponding author 【3】 Mol psych: the relationship between inflammation and heart disease and depression doi: 10.1038/s41380-019-0395-3 according to a recent study, heart disease patients are more likely to suffer from depression First, the team looked at whether a family history of coronary heart disease was associated with a risk of major depression They found that at least one person whose parents died of a heart attack was 20 percent more likely to suffer from depression at some point in their lives Next, the researchers calculated the genetic risk score for coronary heart disease - a measure of the contribution of various genes known to increase the risk of heart disease Heart disease is a so-called "polygenic" disease - in other words, it is not caused by a single genetic variation, but by a large number of genes, each of which increases an individual's risk of heart disease However, unlike family history, the researchers found no strong link between the genetic susceptibility to heart disease and the likelihood of experiencing depression All in all, these results suggest that the link between heart disease and depression cannot be explained by the common genetic susceptibility of the two diseases Instead, it suggests that someone's environment - such as the risk factors they face - not only increases their risk of heart disease, but also increases their risk of depression This finding is further supported by experimental evidence Among the common biomarkers, they found that triglycerides, a fat found in the blood, and inflammation related proteins IL-6 and CRP were also risk factors for depression Both IL-6 and CRP are markers of inflammation that are produced in response to destructive stimuli, such as infection, stress or smoking Previous studies by Dr khandaker and others have shown that people with elevated blood levels of IL-6 and CRP are more likely to develop depression, and that the levels of these biomarkers are high in some patients during episodes of acute depression Elevated inflammatory markers were also observed in people with treatment resistant depression This raises the prospect that anti-inflammatory drugs may be used to treat some patients with depression Dr khandaker is currently participating in a clinical trial to test tocilizumab, an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, which suppresses IL-6, to see if reducing inflammation improves mood and cognitive function in patients with depression 【4】 Trans psychi: brain stimulation can relieve depression symptoms doi: 10.1038/s41398-019-0439-0 weak alternating current sent by electrodes attached to the scalp, researchers of UNC medical college have successfully improved depression symptoms of about 70% of clinical research participants The study, published in the journal translational psychology, used a special computer stimulus called transcranial alternating current stimulation (TACS) to treat people diagnosed with major depression "We conducted a small study of 32 people because this approach has never been done before," said Dr Flavio Frohlich, senior author, associate professor of psychiatry and director of the Carolina Center for neural stimulation "Now that we have documented how this approach can reduce depression symptoms, we can fine tune our approach to help many people in a relatively inexpensive, non-invasive way." Source: www.pixabay.com researchers divided participants into three groups One group received sham placebo stimulation - a transient electrical stimulation that mimics sensation at the beginning of a TACs course The control group received 40 Hz TACs intervention, which was far beyond the range that the researchers thought would affect the α oscillation The third group received a therapeutic intervention - a 10 Hz TACs current for each person's naturally occurring alpha wave Each person received 40 minutes of treatment for five consecutive days When Frohlich's team looked at the data two weeks after treatment, they found that 70% of the treatment group reported at least a 50% reduction in depressive symptoms, based on their MADRS scores The response rate was significantly higher than that of the other two control groups 【5】 J AFEC dis: smart phones help scientists better understand the causes of depression doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.09.061 over the past decades, in-depth progress has been made in the study of anxiety and depression The establishment of relevant models helps to explain the causes and scale of these two diseases However, for all their recognized validity, these models differ significantly in measuring different individuals Therefore, it is not the best way to check the emotion of a specific person Now psychologists at the University of buffalo are expanding this valuable study to measure the symptoms of specific individuals repeatedly and frequently in real time to understand the correlation between direct feelings and subsequent symptoms Photo source: www.pixabay.com the study shows anxiety and depression in ways that have not been studied before The results show that some emotions exist in a way that predicts emotions that occur beyond a specific period According to Kristin Gainey, assistant professor of psychology at Ub and author of the study, this information can provide therapeutic benefits for patients with these diseases To that end, Gainey conducted a baseline assessment of 135 participants, each seeking some form of psychotherapy Participants were interviewed about their feelings and symptoms on their smartphones three times a day for 10 weeks The whole investigation time is within 20 minutes "This produces enough reports to provide a good indication of the fluctuations and trajectories of each person's symptoms and effects," the authors said "If we can identify specific risk factors that increase symptoms in real time, we can even use smartphones to send advice on useful strategies or to alert the person's psychiatrist," the authors said 【6】 Mol psycho: activation of specific neurons can relieve depression symptoms in male mice doi: 10.1038/s41380-019-0352-1 in a recent study, the authors found that direct activation of an excitatory neuron may help relieve depression symptoms, at least for men In this study, the authors observed the prefrontal cortex (a brain region involved in complex behavior and known to play an important role in the pathogenesis of major depression), and found that the deactivation of SIRT1 gene in excitatory neurons is the cause of symptoms The results were published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry A drug that activates SIRT1 can reverse symptoms in men, the authors say "It has an antidepressant like effect," said Xin Yun Lu, co-author of the study Lu said that this means that drugs that activate SIRT1 and make these excitatory neurons usually have high levels of activity may one day become effective treatments for depression In depression, the excitatory neurons will certainly be reduced, and the neurons will not function according to the normal mode Another role of SIRT1 in brain cells is to regulate the co production of mitochondria Scientists have found that partial knockout of SIRT1 affects the activity of these normally excited neurons, and the number and function of mitochondria play a key regulatory role The depressive behavior they saw was another indicator of the importance of SIRT1 for mood regulation in the region, and if not